Government shutdown: Oregon still gets Social Security, mail and Bonneville Power

Mail service will continue if the federal government shuts down, but many other services will be disrupted.

WASHINGTON – If the federal government grinds to a partial stop Saturday morning, there is good news for the 70,461 people in Oregon who receive Social Security: Your benefits will continue without interruption.

The same is true for 602,686 Oregonians currently eligible for Medicare's health benefits. In both cases, benefits would continue because the system is largely automated.

But the good news only goes so far. If you have problems with those services, resolving them will be difficult. Workers at Social Security and Health and Human Services who might help are likely to be furloughed; no one will answer the phone. Nor is it likely you'll find relief by contacting any of Oregon's five House members or two senators. Staffers who handle those issues will be sent home until funding is restored.

"We anticipate that all of our state offices will be closed," said Julie Edwards, spokeswoman for Sen. Jeff Merkley. "Meetings will be canceled, including the town halls we have scheduled for this week, and constituent services requests will not be processed until regular government functions resume."

This patchwork pattern will be duplicated nationwide if Congress fails to agree on a spending plan and federal money runs out at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Lawmakers and the White House reported progress Wednesday and moved to approve a one-week extension. But the potential for a government closure for the first time in 15 years remained a worrisome possibility.

A shutdown would stop the Internal Revenue Service from processing refunds for taxpayers who file paper returns. It also would suspend tax audits.

Loan guarantees and direct loans being processed by the Small Business Administration would stall and thousands of people seeking mortgage loan guarantees from the Federal Housing Administration would suddenly be in limbo. Like the SBA, the FHA would close until Congress approves a budget for the rest of this fiscal year. That worries White House aides and some economists, since the FHA guarantees one-third of all home mortgages.

Precise estimates are difficult, but White House officials said Wednesday that the number of federal employees furloughed this time could exceed the 800,000 sent home in 1996, when the government last shut down.

The number of Oregon employees is even fuzzier, since each agency has discretion to determine who must stay on the job and who must leave. According to a federal census in 2008, there were 25,094 federal employees in Oregon, with the largest number employed by the Postal Service.

It's also the umbrella that Congress uses to continue operation. Those employees would not be paid, however, until Congress restarts funding.

Air traffic controllers also would continue to work, but if passengers are headed to Washington, D.C. or national parks, they would need to make new plans. All national parks and forests and Bureau of Land Management property will close, as will the Smithsonian museums and National Zoo.

For people traveling outside the U.S., passport applications will be frozen.

Clinical trials already underway at the National Institutes of Health would continue, but new ones would be delayed. No new patients would be accepted.

Federal agencies that do not rely on annual appropriations from Congress will be untouched. That includes Bonneville Power Administration, based in Portland, because it derives its income from power sales. And it covers mail service, which theoretically pays its own way.

Yet another exception is agencies whose budgets span more than one year. That's why Veterans Affairs hospitals and facilities will stay open. VA facilities closed during the last shutdown in 1995 and 1996, when its budget was written one year at a time. That was changed so that veterans can receive care even when political differences dry up money for other parts of government.

Lawmakers must decide who should be furloughed and who must stay. According to guidance to House members, only employees directly connected to a member's "constitutional responsibilities, the protection of human life, or the protection of property" can continue working in a shutdown. Other employees must leave, handing in their Blackberrys and severing contact with the office until funding is restored.

Portland Rep. Earl Blumenauer is not pleased.

"It's unfortunate," he said, "that people are trying to score political points while strangling important government services like food safety, research and services to families and seniors"